Strategic Gaming for Sustained Performance

It might be easy to forget, but a PS5 is as much a computer as any desktop. Even though it’s a dedicated gaming machine, you should follow the same care and ethics you would show to your desktop to your PS5.

And while there are various “best practices,” one of the most forgotten is turning off your PS5 when you don’t need it. While it’s yours, and you can do with it whatever you want, it’s best to let it rest to prolong its life. We’ve gathered here all the reasons why you shouldn’t leave your PS5 running.

1. Your PS5 Can Overheat

Overheating typically has two effects. The first one is temporary, and it means your PS5 will shut down to regulate temperature, disrupting whatever process is currently going on. The second is permanent, irreversible damage to your PS5’s internal components.

While your PS5, normally, should be able to regulate its own temperature with no problems, leaving it on with a game running in the background could cause heat to compound inside the PS5 and around its immediate environment. The possibility of this happening is low, but not entirely impossible—especially if your PS5 is in an unventilated location like a cabinet, so you should even risk it.

There are things you can do to stop your PS5 from overheating , like a supplementary external fan. However, you should reserve such measures for using it while playing video games.

2. Leaving Your PS5 On Consumes More Power (and Money)

Sony declared that the PS5 Disc Edition uses a maximum of 350 watts while the Digital Edition uses 340 watts. However, most games should demand between 150 to 250 watts. While this is seemingly small, it could multiply over the course of several days.

And it’s even worse if you leave your TV on as well because the average consumption for a modern TV is about 175 watts . Leaving your PS5 and TV running for 24 hours could cost you anything from 6 kilowatts to 10.8 kilowatts per day.

The average cost of electricity in the US is about 12 cents per unit of kilowatts. When you do the math, you’ll see that it could cost you between $0.72 to $1.30 per day and around $10 for an entire week.

3. Your PS5 Will Get Dirty Faster

We talked about overheating earlier, but we didn’t mention how dust, dirt, and debris buildup are major contributors to overheating. Over time this dirt buildup could clog your PS5’s vents and layer on its internal fan, causing it to be much less effective. In some cases, this buildup could cause irreparable damage if it affects sensitive internals.

Turning your PS5 off also turns its fan off, which, typically, works similarly to a vacuum cleaner by sucking in air from outside to cool the PS5’s internals. The more time it spends, the more dust and debris it’ll suck into the PS5.

You should be very wary of this if you live in a dusty state like Nevada or California. If you live in a dusty place, you would have to put more effort than other PS5 users into cleaning your PS5. Open up the cover of your console, inspect it for dust, and clean your PS5 . But most importantly, turn it off if you don’t need it.

4. Your PS5 Will Download and Auto-Update Unnecessary Games and Apps

If you’re like me, you like to have your games updated and fully downloaded all the time. So you most likely have your PS5 auto-updates feature turned on . But if you’re also like me, then your internet usage is expensive. Leaving your PS5 on gives your PS5 the opportunity to download and update games you probably haven’t played for multiple months, wasting your limited and expensive internet.

You could turn off auto-updates, but it will mean that the online games you love playing might be out of date when you decide to play them. A good compromise would be if Sony added a feature that would let you keep certain games up to date. But the PS5 has no such feature; you must automatically update all or automatically update none.

Turning off your PS5 will help you control what’s downloading better. You get a notification of what your PS5 is updating when you turn your PS5 on, and you can quickly head into the Downloads window and stop downloads you don’t want.

5. Hardware Wears Out Quicker

PlayStations are well-crafted machines and they can last many years and still run as good as new. But a five-year-old PS5 and a PS5 that has seen five years of active use aren’t the same. If you care about keeping your PS5 for a long time, you should shut it down when you don’t need it.

There are mechanical components in your PS5 that benefit from rest, like the fan and the disc reader (remove discs you’re not using). And if you find that you constantly have to open your PS5 to replace parts or take it for repairs, you already have a PS5 with a drastically lower resale value and an impaired gaming experience.

6. Unforeseen Power Outages Cause a Greater Risk of Data Corruption

Yes, PS5 data can get corrupted, and it could cost you your games. Technically, you can always re-download or re-install the game, but you will likely lose your progress unless you have backed your PS5 data up .

Your PS5 is prone to get corrupted the longer it stays on. And this probability is a lot higher if you have auto-updates turned on. There’s a reason why your PS5 and video games warn you not to turn off your console while it’s writing data on the drive.

The main culprit for this is random power outages, which could happen from circumstances beyond your control. There could be electric repairs going on that result in your power cutting off. In some cases, somebody could just unplug your PS5 because they thought it was off. Leaving your PS5 on with things downloading or saving in the background is a prime opportunity for data corruption to happen if you lose power unexpectedly.

While your PS5 downloads apps and games in rest mode, it doesn’t do any saving or run any games. So, you shouldn’t be too worried about losing power while your PS5 is in rest mode.

PS5’s Rest Mode Exists for a Reason

If you certainly have to leave your PS5 on, then you should take advantage of rest mode. As long as you have rest mode on, your PS5 will automatically update games and finish downloads. Additionally, rest mode uses about 1.50 watts of power, and your plugged-in but switched-off PS5 uses around 1.30 watts of power—so there’s not much of a difference.

Turn rest mode on when you have downloads and shut down your PS5 when you don’t need it at all.